[CentOS] How to delete files with specical characters in the name?

Tue Jan 22 16:52:24 UTC 2008
Steven Haigh <netwiz at crc.id.au>

On 23/01/2008, at 3:46 AM, Eric B. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've got an odd situation here.  Somehow, I find myself with two  
> files that
> start with the - character.
> [eric at apollo mysql]$ ls -l
> total 93348
> -rw-r--r--  1 mysql mysql  9273344 Nov 13 19:03 -N=2007-11-08
> -rw-r--r--  1 mysql mysql 38879232 Nov 13 19:02 --newer=2007-11-08
>
>
> Don't ask how they were created; something went wrong with a script  
> at some
> point.
>
> My problem is that I am trying to delete them, but can't figure out  
> how to
> delete these files.  Everything I try, I get the same msg:
> [eric at apollo mysql]$ rm '-N=2007-11-08'
> rm: invalid option -- N
> Try `rm --help' for more information.
>
>
> I have tried single quotes, double quotes, escaping it with a \ and  
> still
> get the same error.


You can put -- after the rm command to tell it that everything after  
that is an arguement (I think).

ie:
$ echo > --help
$ ls -l -- *help*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 netwiz netwiz 1 Jan 23 03:51 --help
$ rm -f -- --help
$ ls -l -- *help*
ls: *help*: No such file or directory
$

--
Steven Haigh

Email: netwiz at crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897